ARIZONA

Study shows high costs of extreme heat in Phoenix

PHOENIX – Extreme heat is expensive.

That’s the conclusion of a study presented on Dec. 6 by The Nature Conservancy, which commissioned a look at the costs of rising temperatures in Phoenix.

Working with infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, the nonprofit environmental organization known for its nature preserves and efforts to protect biodiversity this time turned its attention to the country’s hottest large metropolitan area.

David Hondula, a climate scientist formerly with Arizona State University who now heads Phoenix’s new heat response and mitigation office, said the report will be useful for cities like his in getting funding for measures to help cool down neighborhoods. He served on the study’s advisory committee.

Phoenix was always scorching, but climate change has made it even hotter, with temperatures in early September still climbing to 111 degrees. Temperatures reached as high as 118 degrees over the summer. The city is the nation’s fifth largest, with 1.6 million people.

The people most vulnerable to the heat are often in poor and racially diverse communities where many households lack the means to cope with heat waves that are becoming more frequent, widespread and severe. Phoenix’s Maricopa County recorded 323 heat related deaths in 2020,

Extreme heat already costs people in metro Phoenix $7.3 million every year in emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to heat-related illnesses, according to the study. Maintaining roadways in the metro area costs transportation agencies over $100 million annually as streets and highways buckle, rut and crack from high temperatures.

The study concluded planting enough trees to provide canopy for a quarter of the desert city and covering all of the area’s buildings with “cool roofs” made of materials that don’t absorb heat could help the city save billions of dollars over the next three decades.

NEW MEXICO

New rules take effect for state’s pot industry

SANTA FE – New rules governing the manufacture, sale and transport of recreational marijuana in New Mexico have gone into effect.

The New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department’s Cannabis Control Division made the announcement on Dec. 28, saying the rules allow the division to continue streamlining the process for cannabis businesses to get licensed as the state moves toward recreational sales over the coming months.

Under legislation passed earlier in 2021, the rules needed to be in place by Jan. 1. Sales are expected to start by April 1.

More than 300 applications for licenses across all sectors of the cannabis industry have been submitted so far, according to the Cannabis Control Division. Each one is being reviewed.

The rules that took effect include final manufacturing requirements that replace emergency rules that were adopted in the fall to protect workers and improve workplace safety. The rules also cover the licensing of retail stores and transport guidelines for the safe delivery and distribution of cannabis products by licensed couriers.

NAVAJO NATION

Council sending big checks to tribal members

WINDOW ROCK – The Navajo Nation’s tribal council has voted to send $2,000 checks to each qualified adult and $600 for each child using $557 million in federal coronavirus relief funds.

The council’s vote to send the checks to about 350,000 tribal members was approved on Dec. 30 by Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.

The decision will tap some of the approximately $2.1 billion the tribe is receiving from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act. The payments will be automatically sent to tribal members living on or off the reservation who applied for relief funds under a previous round of hardship assistance payments.

An estimated 250,000 adults will each receive $2,000 payments and parents or guardians of 95,000 tribal members under age 18 with receive $600 for each child.

At the same time, Nez approved $300 checks for tribal residents age 60 and older who previously showed they needed extra assistance. The checks will come from nearly $16 million in remaining money the tribe has from relief funds approved by former President Donald Trump.

Earlier in December, a Council committee met to consider how to spend $1.2 billion in virus relief funds. They discussed spending the money on a large number of infrastructure projects and on $207 million in payments Nez had agreed to provide.

IDAHO

Charged with felonies, sheriff must surrender guns

BLACKFOOT – An eastern Idaho sheriff accused of threatening a church youth group with a gun and assaulting one of its leaders can stay on the job but must surrender all of his firearms to the Idaho State Police.

A judge’s ruling on Dec. 29 also requires Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland to have no contact with the alleged victims.

The Idaho attorney general’s office earlier in December charged Rowland with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and misdemeanor exhibition of a gun. Rowland did not enter a plea on Dec. 29, his first appearance in court on the charges. First appearances involve procedural matters such as advising people of their rights.

In court documents, investigators with the Idaho attorney general’s office wrote that a youth group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was participating in an activity Nov. 9 where they delivered thank-you notes to members of the congregation. The girls, aged 12 to 16, taped the notes to the churchgoers’ doors and then rang their doorbells, running away before they could be seen.

Seven of the youth group members and an adult leader went to Rowland’s neighborhood to leave a note for the sheriff and his wife, according to the court documents. Members of the youth group and Rowland both reportedly said that after the group left the note, Rowland stopped their car from driving away, pulled the adult driver out of the vehicle by her hair and pointed his handgun at her head, yelling profanities at her.

Rowland agreed to take a leave of absence shortly after the allegations arose in November, but has since returned to the job.

Rowland has said he received threats in recent months and worried about people coming to his home. In a statement, he disparaged the people on the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Fort Hall Reservation, referencing intoxication, calling them “not good people” and saying their proximity was the reason for his actions.

UTAH

COVID outbreak hits missionary training center

PROVO – An outbreak of COVID-19 has been reported at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ main training center for missionaries in Provo, Utah, church officials said on Dec. 30.

The Provo Missionary Training Center, which resumed in-person training in June, requires all missionaries to be fully vaccinated and also conducts COVID-19 testing.

Face coverings will now be required in all indoor spaces and missionaries will not travel to their assigned missions unless they have tested negative for COVID-19 or have completed any necessary quarantine periods, said church spokesperson Sam Penrod.

New arriving missionaries will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test when they report to the center, he said.

After several missionaries tested positive during the week, all 588 missionaries at the Provo center were tested and a total of 91 tested positive. Very few of those who tested positive reported feeling ill or having any symptoms, he said.

The center is still operating at a reduced capacity and has enough space to separate those who have tested negative from those who have tested positive for the respiratory virus.